Picking Up the Pieces
by Smiley612
Summary: Patricia knew Eddie. She knew that his favorite color was blue. She knew how he tried to come off as a bad boy to hide his caring, loving, and protective persona. However, Patricia didn't know that one argument would change their relationship forever— Eddie began to hurt in more ways than one, but Patricia loved Eddie too much to tell anyone. [Peddie/Five-shot/Rated T for abuse]
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I do not own House of Anubis, the characters, or the locations used.  
**Pairing: **Patricia Williamson/Eddie Miller  
**Dedication: **clarksonwriter17 — Paige. She's to thank if, later in the story, it makes you sad or cry.  
**Warning: **_ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS AND CURSE WORDS_. If these things trigger you or make you uncomfortable, I'd advise you to not go on any further.  
**Note: **I blame Paige for the inspiration. This was originally supposed to be a Fabina fic, but I changed it because I thought I'd like it better as Peddie; turns out, I liked it 101% better. I welcome all reviews: Constructive Criticism, praise, nice letters telling me how much you liked it, flames, or even the "WHO GAVE THE RIGHT" messages later in this story.  
_The next update is next Wednesday, with chapter 2. _This story will last until September 11th — by that time, I'll be a freshman in high school, but don't fret, because all the chapters are currently written. Chapter 2 will be published on August 21st.  
This story is only going to be **5 chapters**; a short little story, so trust me, guys, it's only going to get worse. Buckle your seat belts, my fellow Peddie lovers, because you're in for a crazy ride, if you're ready to accept the fate of Patricia and Eddie's crumbling relationship.

* * *

_**CHAPTER ONE  
**Your string of lights is still bright to me._

* * *

Her name was Patricia Williamson.

Her housemates knew her as tough Patricia Williamson; Patricia Williamson, who never shed a tear, never showed any signs of sympathy, poured liquids over new people's heads, and who never let anyone cross her path without a bruise.

When she was sixteen, she met Eddie Miller. When she was sixteen, she hated him as soon as she saw him because he was a sexist, demeaning, idiotic pig. But she ended up falling in love with him in the end, after countless fights and arguments and secret sharing and promises.

When she was seventeen, her normal routine went south. She had broken up with the boy who had given Patricia her first kiss; she was scared of her feelings and where they would take her, so she broke up with him before they could go any further in their relationship.

Dating was scary, because you would either a) end up marrying them or b) breaking up with them. Patricia had chose option B, and it turned out to be the worst choice of her life.

Patricia had dreaded the first day of school for weeks and weeks beforehand. Patricia and Eddie didn't survive the first two weeks of the summer before they split up; how could they survive ten months of living in the same house together? Somehow, they made it work, even with Amber and Willow on their tails, swearing that they saw "Peddie eye-contact", whatever that meant.

It wasn't until Eddie kissed Patricia to shut her up when her life took a left turn. At first, with Eddie, she was happy. He put her arm around her at the dinner table. They kissed goodbye before departing for their classes in school. They knew that their business with the House and everyone involved with the Frobisher-Smythe's wasn't over in the slightest, but Patricia definitely didn't know that instead of being afraid of being turned into a sinner, Patricia was afraid of her own boyfriend.

**v v v**

She told herself that she should have seen it coming, but in all honesty, no one could have.

"So," Patricia began the conversation, cuddling with Eddie on his bed on a Saturday afternoon while Fabian was out doing who-knows-what. She laced her fingers into his hand before she said, "What's going to happen now?"

"What do you mean?" Eddie questioned, smiling the slightest bit.

"You know . . ." she mused, searching up and down his room for the unknown object. "What's going to happen in our relationship? Now that we've gotten back together —"

"I'll never let you go again," Eddie told her simply. When he saw how big Patricia's eyes were growing, he chuckled and continued, "No, no, not in like a stalker/kidnapper kind of way. You told me how that experience was for you." Patricia shivered at the thought of Rufus locking her in a warehouse for three days. "What I mean is that I love you. Even though we broke up — which was completely not mutual — I still loved you, and you made it pretty obvious yourself also."

"Oh, did I?"

"You did." Eddie agreed, glancing down at their interlocked fingers. "I don't want to make you think you have to break up with me again. There won't be another reason why you say you never want to see me again. You won't get kidnapped by a man with murderous flies or have to go through all the tunnels while you're blind. I'm a big tough man, and I'll keep you safe."

Patricia laughed, consumed with humor, and Eddie narrowed his eyes in confusion. "You think you're a big tough man?" she questioned, and Eddie nodded unknowingly. "Well, let's see you do this."

She pushed herself out of Eddie's lap and onto the hardwood floor. After a few painful seconds of wondering what Patricia was going to do, she took a deep breath, and her heels started to rise up off the floor; her body rose toward the ceiling, and soon enough, she was holding her whole body up by her toes.

With a look of complete impression imprinted on his face, Eddie smiled in amazement as Patricia's face contorted in pain. Eddie didn't think about walking up to her when Patricia lost her balance and tumbled to the floor.

Eddie gasped and walked over to Patricia, lying on the floor. "Thanks," she mumbled bitterly to herself.

"Oh, Patricia, stop it," Eddie commanded, holding out his hand for her to take. She took is gratefully, pushing herself up to be face-to-face with her boyfriend again. "It wasn't a big deal."

"Yes it was!" she complained, sitting down on Eddie's bed again and inspecting her toes. "Remember that trust exercise we did in class?"

"The one where I was paired up with Alfie?" he remembered, chuckling. "Oh, yeah. I was too caught up in being jealous over you and Benji to notice Alfie leaning back. He fell to the floor and he said, and I quote, 'I will never trust you again'." He snorted, but his joyous look immediately faded when he saw Patricia's look of anger. "Don't tell me you're mad at me because I wasn't there to catch you."

"I _am_!" Patricia yelled, pushing herself off the bed yet again to pace the bedroom. "I mean, how can I trust you anymore?"

"I _really_ hope you're kidding, Patricia," Eddie growled, and now was one — and very few — of the times when Patricia wished that Eddie would have called her Yacker. When her nickname was used, she always knew Eddie wasn't _truly_ mad. "You never once said, 'come next to me and catch me if I fall'. You told me to watch you, and that's what I did. So just _shut up_!"

"Why are we fighting over this?!" Patricia exclaimed, tugging at her hair before she finally stopped and glanced at Eddie's face. In the two years she had known him, Patricia had known Eddie as the carefree, rebellious, caring and protective man who would be awesome as her first husband. She had never seen his face so red, looking so angry; Patricia didn't know she could boil his blood that much.

"I don't know!" Eddie's voice grew louder with every sentence he spoke. Patricia truly hoped that the other people in Anubis House weren't hearing this; then she'd have to explain why they were fighting, and it was a really stupid reason; she'd feel idiotic in front of the people she'd known almost all her life.

"Well, then, let's forget it," she stated calmly, her heart pounding as she, once again, sat down on his bed. "It was a stupid reason to fight, anyway. It's fine, my toes are fine, so let's just forget —"

"I don't want to forget this," Eddie said through his teeth. Reluctantly, Patricia looked up; she didn't think she'd see Eddie even more angry than he was before. What could Patricia have done? She was calmer than she was when she realized that Joy was safe and sound after she went missing two years previous.

"Why don't you?" she questioned, not moving her gaze from her boyfriend's red face. Her heart was threatening to pound out of her chest as her fear grew larger and larger; how could she win here? Eddie was never angry. _Never_. Sure, Patricia and Eddie got into fights sometimes, disagreements over which dress to where to the gala, but he was _never_ angry. Not really. Patricia could see it in his face that he was angrier than ever before. Something she did to make him angry was coming back to bite her in the ass.

"Ugh, Patricia, you never listen to me!" Eddie complained, being the one to pace the room this time. "You always argue with me! _Always_! We can never agree on _anything_! It's annoying sometimes, because I want one thing and you want another! Oh, my God, you're so worthless. I don't know why I ever thought dating you was a good idea. Thinking about it, why did I ever like you in the first place, you ugly, stupid, idiotic —"

"Okay, Eddie, that's enough." Patricia was on the verge of tears — and nothing _ever_ made her cry. She didn't know what was making her so upset: the insults that Eddie had called her? Was it that Eddie still wanted to continue their argument while Patricia wanted to drop it forever? She couldn't be sure; but one thing she was sure about was that this day wasn't going to end nicely.

"It's not enough, it's not, Patricia —"

"EDDIE, JUST STO—"

"NO, PATRICIA, I DON'T—"

And then she felt the pain in her left cheek. Her hand instinctively went up to it, but all she felt was tingles, no pain. After that, she realized she had closed her eyes; when she opened them, she saw Eddie, his fist clenched, not looking like he had regretted this decision at all.

Patricia could have run away. She could have told somebody, gotten Eddie suspended or moved into a new house, could have ended it all right then and there. But as much little pain as she was in — the slap didn't even hurt that much — she loved Eddie too much. Somehow, she knew he didn't mean it. Maybe it wasn't Eddie, maybe it was a different version of him, a version that slapped their girlfriends when they boiled their blood. The slap was the beginning of something horrid; Patricia didn't know that it would just get worse from there on out.

Eddie and Patricia stood face-to-face, one of them too in love with the other to do anything about her predicament.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **I don't own House of Anubis.  
**Warning: **_ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS AND CURSE WORDS_. If these things trigger you or make you uncomfortable, I would suggest not reading any further.  
**Note: **So, here we are with chapter two! We have 3 chapters left, and it's just going to get worse from here on out. I'm bracing myself for all the "WHY" comments to come rolling in, because this is only the start of this 5-shot. Next chapter, 3, will have a major cliffhanger, so brace yourselves for that one.  
On any note, thank you for the reviews last chapter; keep 'em coming! I do hope you enjoy chapter 2. :)

* * *

**_CHAPTER TWO_****  
**_Who you are is not what you did._

* * *

Her name was Patricia Williamson, and her life just seemed to get worse from there on out.

After Eddie slapped her for the first time, Patricia ran out of his room, into the girls' bathroom and cried. Maybe Patricia could have understood if it was someone else — Jerome, maybe, or — god forbid — Alfie — but not Eddie. Not. Eddie.

It was Eddie Miller, not _Eddie Miller_, the abusive boyfriend who didn't care that he had just hit the girl he'd taken to America with him the previous summer. Eddie Miller was the _protector_ of Nina Martin, not the destroyer of Patricia Williamson. Eddie was made to protect, not to destroy.

Anyone could tell that Eddie was protective of Patricia, even when they weren't dating in the beginning of his first and second year. It was just in his nature as the Osirian. Eddie was born to protect the Chosen One, so of course he'd be protective.

How come, when they went to America together, Eddie would talk to Nina on the phone all night? (Eddie explained later that they were discussing how to work out the _Osirian-and-Chosen-One-can't-be-together-or-bad-th ings-will-happen_ predicament.) How come, when Eddie's mother fell over on the parking lot because she lost her balance, Eddie wouldn't let go of her arm until they got back to his house? How come, when his little brother was picked on in summer camp, Eddie drove all the way there and beat up the kid who called his brother a loser?

How come, Eddie did all those things last summer but had just hit Patricia and didn't even feel guilty about it?

* * *

**v v v**

* * *

Patricia avoided the rest of her Housemates for the rest of the day. In all honesty, she spent the day in the bathroom, so of course she had to avoid them.

She couldn't force herself to look in the mirror. She knew all she'd see was a big, fat, purple bruise forming on her left cheek, and she didn't need any more reassurance that Eddie had just hit her.

What would she say to everyone in Anubis House? She could lie and say that she'd tumbled down the stairs because she was too busy looking at her phone to notice the steps approaching. She could say that she was leaning down to find something under her bed and smashed her face into the bed post because she saw a spider.

She could say anything other than that Eddie hit her.

Patricia didn't know what they'd do to him if they found out. His dad might expel him from the school for assaulting a student. He might get sent back to America to live with his mother and brother for the year. They might even send him to anger management classes if they knew _why_ he'd hit her.

Maybe Patricia was wrong. Maybe their fight _was_ a big deal, but she still didn't understand. They'd been in thousands of fights before, some as pre-boyfriend and girlfriend, some as a couple, and some as exes. All of them lead to them making up. None of them lead to what had happened only hours before.

Even so, the fight that had led up to it was a stupid one at that. There'd been some irrational ones where Patricia looked back on it and thought: _Why did we fight on that in the first place?_ Fighting over not catching each other might have been a stupid argument. It was a stupid reason to hit someone, too.

Patricia was being stupid herself by crying over this, anyway. She was Patricia Williamson, tough girl of Anubis House who never shed a tear. She didn't even cry that one time she was kidnapped by Rufus Zeno.

She picked herself together eventually. The clock above the mirror in the bathroom read 9:48 in the evening; 12 minutes to go before Victor gave his famous "Pin-Drop" speech.

She decided she'd go to bed early; maybe sleeping would clear her head. She avoided KT's gaze as she snuggled into her bed, thinking how she used to share this room with Joy, before Nina came and fucked shit up. She eventually fell asleep with no Eddie coming in her dreams to haunt her, but the morning wasn't so pleasant.

"Good morning, Patricia!" Trudy greeted as she walked into the kitchen. Without a word, she lifted her hand to send her a _Hello_ message. Patricia had devised a plan; she'd walk into the kitchen, grab a sample of whatever Trudy had cooked for breakfast, and head out for school early. Patricia, after checking, had a big, fat bruise on her cheek and people would ask where she got it. If Eddie was near her when people asked, she'd be in deep trouble.

Her plan went smoothly, until Joy came into her room. "Hey, Patricia!" Joy smiled behind her. Patricia silently cursed her plan as she slowly gathered her belongings into her rucksack for the school day.

She tried to avoid Joy's gaze as she walked out of the room, but Joy followed her out. "Patricia, what's up? Is something wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Patricia stated simply, her back to Joy as she walked down the stairs. She bid Trudy a quick goodbye before opening the door and slamming it in Joy's face. She didn't think about the fact that Joy could easily open the door just as Patricia had closed it.

Her best friend eventually caught up with her. Sighing, Joy heaved her own rucksack over her shoulder. "Another day, another dollar, amiright?" she laughed, looking ahead.

After another moments' silence, Joy decided to speak up. Patricia was just thinking of what to say in response, but Joy, always quick to assume, took action. "Patricia, you've barely spoken all morning. Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong," Patricia repeated the only sentence she'd said all morning, finally looking Joy in the face. She'd come to the conclusion that maybe if she acted as if she didn't know the bruise was there, Joy or anyone else wouldn't suspect anything. She'd finalized the story of her tumbling down the stairs; it seemed most likely. She just hoped that no one was in the common room at the time in her story.

Of course, Joy saw the bruise. She gasped; and Joy, of course, asked what happened. Patricia repeated her memorized story: "I was talking to Piper on the phone, too consumed with our conversation, when suddenly my foot slipped and I fell down a few steps. I hit my face on one of the stairs, and here we have this sucker, stuck on my face for the next couple of days!" She laughed weakly.

Joy blinked, and laughed along with her. She might have been a walking soap-opera, but one thing Patricia knew about Joy was that she was terribly naïve. Joy was a smart girl when it came to things she was interested in, but since Patricia was a good liar, she could make anyone believe her story was true. She'd almost convinced herself.

Before they walked into the school, Joy gasped. "Oh, I just remembered!" Patricia turned to her in curiousity. "Eddie told me to tell you he was looking for you." As Joy walked to her locker, fear coursed through her veins.

Trembling, she walked around the corner and peaked into the other hallway; Eddie's locker was right next to Fabian's, and, sure enough, both boys were standing in front of them. She could have approached Eddie right then and there — Eddie wouldn't hit her right in front of Fabian, if that was all he was going to do — but she decided against it.

She was Patricia Williamson. She'd faced Rufus Zeno in front of murderous flies, walked over a thin bridge with flying pendulums threatening to chop her head off, and fought against her idiot teachers who thought they could win against Sibuna. If Patricia could do all that, she could approach Eddie alone.

Bad idea.

All through the day, people asked her about the stupid bruise on her cheek; when she played it off as if it was nothing, people believed her. But Fabian, who was easily the smartest in Sibuna, and who had five million facts stored inside his head, had a hard time believing her. It took Patricia the longest time to convince Fabian, but all she really had to do was threaten to burn his new copy of The Solar System is Your Friend and he was a goner.

She hadn't talked to Eddie all day. She'd avoided him during the classes they had together and when they passed each other in the halls, Patricia turned and went the other way. Sure, she might have been late to one or two classes, but that was better than what was to come.

She stood in front of Eddie's door, her fist two inches from the hard wood.

* * *

**v v v**

* * *

"Hello, Patricia."

Patricia had never been so afraid of Eddie before. There was no reason to. He was nice to everybody, despite his bad-boy façade he put up instead of telling people he was a softie for classic romance. (Patricia and Eddie watched a lot of Patricia's favorite rom-com's while she was in America and Eddie never once protested, but maybe it was because of his protective nature at work too.)

She was sure Eddie could feel her back tense up as he led her into his room.

"Joy said you wanted to see me?" Patricia asked, trying to cover up the tremble in her voice. All Eddie did yesterday was slap her — a simple slap that didn't even hurt that much — but now Patricia was terrified of her boyfriend.

For all she knew, he wanted to talk to her about his grades and now he wanted Mara to tutor him or something so he wanted Patricia's permission. He could've been apologizing for the way he acted yesterday. Or he could've even been proposing.

And people wondered why Patricia didn't like to choose.

"That's right," Eddie confirmed, sitting down on his bed. Patricia faced him, her hands behind her back. His hazel eyes had this innocent look to them, as if the day before had never happened. "Patricia, I don't want you to tell anyone about what happened yesterday."

She was silent for a second; but after that, she immediately regained her composure. Maybe what she did was pushing her luck, but she felt the need to say it.

"Why shouldn't I?" she asked, taking Eddie completely by surprise. "Why should I forget that it happened? It obviously happened, and I have _this_ to prove it." She pointed to the bruise on her cheek, the one she had been downplaying for the whole day.

Eddie took a deep breath and didn't speak for a while. He clenched his fist into a ball and stared at the hardwood floor, unwilling to meet Patricia's eyes; she stood, waiting for his answer. She didn't know how long it had been when Eddie finally said, "Because it didn't happen. That's why. We're going to pretend it didn't happen."

"But it did!" Patricia exclaimed, pushing her luck to the limit. Her face was turning an embarrassing shade of red. "I could go to your dad and tell him what happened, and he could get you expelled! You'd go back to America! Now I remember why I never wanted to see you again in the first place...it happened, Eddie, and you're going to have to accept that."

"It _didn't_!" Eddie screaming, pushing himself off the bed so fast Patricia didn't even remember it happening. Now he was meeting her eyes, but he was too close. Much too close.

"I could go to your dad and tell him what happened!" Patricia retorted, backing away to the door. "And he could get you expelled! You'd go back to America! Now I remember why I never wanted to see you again in the first place —"

Now Eddie was too close for Patricia's liking; in the blink of an eye, Eddie had ran to Patricia's back, put his arm around her throat, and was holding her against his chest. Eddie couldn't see how frightened she was. "Patricia Williamson, you _will_ pretend like it never happened, do you understand me?" When she didn't say anything, he went ballistic.

Patricia, who had never been more afraid of anything in her whole life, dropped to the ground, just about ready to curl in a ball and cry. She was already done, and the abuse had barely even started. But before she could show Eddie how weak she was, she turned her body around to see Eddie pacing in a circle, holding his hair in his hands.

She felt a few tears slide down her cheeks at the sight of her boyfriend. He was obviously holding in a scream; he probably didn't want to attract the attention of everyone in Anubis House. She hated seeing him like this; Eddie was normally caring and loving towards the others. Patricia knew that Willow annoyed him to no lengths, yet Eddie tolerated her day to day, now that Amber was gone. How could someone so loving, so kind, be so cruel to his own girlfriend?

She knew this _wasn't_ Eddie. It couldn't be. Something had to have gotten into him - what other reason would he want to hurt her like this? There was that one moment; it was only a second, but she saw that look of innocence and love in his eyes as he paced the room, his hands in his hair, trying to keep from falling apart. The _real_ Eddie Miller was still in there somewhere. She knew it.

Patricia wondered what they were doing, out in the common room; probably homework. They were probably chatting up a storm, and here Patricia was, being tormented and abused by her own boyfriend. She wished she was one of them.

Eddie's chest moved up and down rhythmically; Patricia stared at it, trying to focus her attention on that instead of the burning sensation in her throat and her knees. It was a while before Eddie finally got his frustration out by grabbing Fabian's guitar.

Patricia immediately knew what he was going to do with it. "No, no!" she suddenly exclaimed, picking herself off the floor and grabbing Fabian's guitar by the other end. "Eddie, no!" Patricia yelled, the tears streaming down her cheeks as she wrestled for her friend's guitar.

Fabian may have been a dork, but Patricia knew how much his guitar meant to him. Thinking back on it, if she hadn't reached for his guitar, things might have possibly worked out differently.

"Eddie, stop it!" Patricia spat, tugging on the guitar. But Eddie, so much taller than Patricia and so much stronger, ripped the guitar out of Patricia's grasp. Breathing heavily, Eddie's hazel eyes looked straight into Patricia's frightened blue ones, and then for a second — only a second, but Patricia saw that second and embraced it — his eyes had a tint of forgiveness in them. But just as the second came, it passed, and a surge of hatred so strong passed through him.

She could hear his breathing as he walked around in a circle, contemplating what to do; Patricia, utterly helpless, slid down against the wall, holding herself together hopelessly. She wanted to stand up, wanted to take Fabian's guitar back and she wanted _so much_ to have the old Eddie back with her, the Eddie who didn't hit his girlfriend when she fought against him.

Then he turned to her. "Oh, Patricia," he said sweetly, and Patricia realized how much she missed her nickname. She'd rather be called "Blabs" then be looked at with all the hatred in Eddie's gaze right now. "You were a fool."

She remained silent, but Eddie wasn't finished. "You were a fool to come back." And with that, Patricia could do nothing but watch as Eddie smashed Fabian's guitar against the end of his bed.

Some people wrote to get their frustration out. Some people drew. Some talked, some walked, some read, watched, typed, cut, or listened to music. Eddie got his frustration out by smashing other people's guitars.

When the guitar was in half on the floor, Eddie met Patricia's gaze. She was trembling now, doing nothing to hide it, and Eddie released a sickening smirk that Patricia had once considered endearing.

* * *

**v v v**

* * *

Fabian walked into the room after Victor gave his famous "Pin-Drop" speech at 10 PM sharp, only to see his precious guitar in shatters on the floor.

"Oh, God!" he yelled, running over to the wreck, picking up the pieces with his hands and inspecting them. He turned around, saw Eddie sitting in his bed, reading a car-related magazine, and asked, "Eddie, do you know who did this?"

At this, Eddie shrugged and turned back to his magazine.

"Dunno."

* * *

**v v v**

* * *

She was wrong when she thought it would get better after that, just like the last time.

She obeyed her boyfriend. No telling, no tattling, no questions. Whenever Eddie called, she was there.

"Patricia, do you want to come into town with us?" Joy asked from the doorway, staring at her best friend under the covers. Patricia had been dormant for days now, totally unlike the Patricia Williamson that Joy was familiar with.

"No, not really," Patricia answered. As much as Joy wanted to help her, whatever her problem was, she knew it was best to leave her alone. For now, at least. She knew Patricia. If she had a problem, Patricia would come to her.

When their bedroom door closed, Patricia threw the covers off her body and onto the floor. A couple of days ago, Patricia had played down the bruise on her cheek, and people believed her; but would people believe her when they saw the new bruise around her eye? Would she even be able to create a lie for that one?

Ignoring the throbbing pain around her eye, she walked over to the window to see all the girls being lifted into Trudy's van and whisked away into town. She would've_ loved_ to be with them — ever since Amber left, shopping had been much easier — but she couldn't risk being questioned about her black eye. Patricia wasn't _that_ clumsy.

"PATRICIA!" Eddie yelled from downstairs; instead of running down to him, she waited by the window. She didn't know what would happen if she didn't come to him; it turned out to put Eddie in a mood worse than he was already in.

She heard the footsteps and he walked up the steps and tried to be strong. Patricia attempted to stop herself from trembling as the door hinged open by crossing her arms, but she knew that didn't work. Eddie rolled his eyes as soon as he walked in.

"Oh, Patricia," he laughed to himself. "Oh, how good is this? I told you to come when I called you. What if I was in danger? What if I had gotten my foot caught in the bed's hold, and it was about to be ripped off? Huh? How would it feel to know your boyfriend died because you didn't help him?"

He was spitting in her face now. She closed her eyes, but her retort came out as following: "I think I'd like it."

She knew it was a big mistake even before he punched her in the chest. "You" — a slap to the cheek — "selfish" — a blow to the back — "stupid" — a kick in the shins — "worthless" — his arm was around her throat again— "little" — he threw her to the ground — "bitch."

"I don't know why I bother," was Eddie's final sentence, before sparing a look at his girlfriend on the floor.

Patricia didn't know, either. She didn't know that it would get worse from there on out. She didn't know why Eddie bothered. She didn't know what had gotten into him.

* * *

**v v v**

* * *

She had finally come to the conclusion: Patricia never, truly, let Eddie in. She didn't lower her walls, like Eddie did for her ("Swoosh!"). Even when she was mute, when Eddie said he was a tin can and she was a tank (The first sensible thing he had said since he arrived), or even in those two weeks she spent in America with him, she didn't lower her walls.

Eddie clawed his way into her life, and for the first year she was with him, Patricia was happy he broke her walls, because she wouldn't have lowered them herself.

It wasn't like she wouldn't trust anyone again. No, nothing like that. But she learned that she had to lower her walls to people, because letting some people in was a bad idea. But she'd always help Eddie, no matter what.

He was Patricia's love.

He was Patricia's weakness.

And she would do anything to protect him.

Even if he wasn't protecting her.


End file.
